CLEVELAND DRUG FUGITIVE CAUGHT IN DELRAY BY FBI, POLICE

DELRAY BEACH -- A man accused of dealing drugs who fled Cleveland in 1980 during a lunch break in his trial was captured in Delray Beach as a dozen FBI agents and police swarmed around his house, officials said Friday.

William J. Kelly, 61, of the 1000 block of Northwest Third Street put up no resistance and was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail after his arrest Thursday in the Lake Ida section of the city, said Delray Beach police Sgt. Richard Senff.

Lt. James Veres of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office said Kelly, who once ran a business making industrial furnaces, was arrested in 1979 after investigators determined he was selling about $100,000 worth of marijuana a week. Kelly posted bond while awaiting trial.

At a morning court hearing before the start of trial, Kelly lost an attempt to suppress several hundred pounds of marijuana seized by police, Veres said.

"They broke for lunch, and the last he was seen was walking back to the justice center," Veres said.

In 1982 or 1983, Veres said, Kelly was arrested and booked into a South Florida jail under an alias. He posted bond and disappeared before the results of a fingerprint check revealed his true identity, Veres said.

Kelly was living in Delray Beach and using two or three aliases, Senff said, but he did not know what they were or what Kelly had been doing in the area.

FBI spokesmen were unavailable Friday.

Kelly is scheduled for his initial court appearance Monday on the flight charges before U.S. Magistrate Ann Vitunac.